review-crooked-kingdom

“Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and left crippled by the kidnapping of a valuable team member, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team’s fragile loyalties. A war will be waged on the city’s dark and twisting streets―a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of magic in the Grisha world.”

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What I thought:

I thought I’d give myself a bit of time before writing the review to get over my hangover, but it didn’t work. I’m still madly in love with Crooked Kingdom, so expect a lot of gushing and incoherent rambling up ahead! 🙂 I’ll try to be vague and let a couple of quotes make up for it.

Where do I start? This isn’t an easy review to write because most of the things I want to talk about are either spoilers or profess my undying love for Jesper and Wylan. It was so nice to be back in Bardugo’s world and read about my favourite characters again that I flew through this.

“Vile, ruthless, amoral. Isn’t that why you hired Kaz in the first place? Because he does the things that no one else dares? Go on, Van Eck. Break my legs and see what happens. Dare him.”

Crooked Kingdom starts right where Six of Crows left off – Inej taken hostage, and with plots for vengeance forming. Bardugo does what she does best – plot twists at every corner, brilliant character development and the banter was to die for! Especially between Nina and Matthias, and Jesper and Wylan. Their constant flirting and innuendos were fantastic and made my day, even more so because innocent Matthias didn’t get the innuendos.

There were a few parts I loved especially, such as the story of how Matthias’ met his wolf Trass, Wylan’s character development, seeing Inej afraid because she’s such a strong character, and the ending. Word of warning: One of the six dies. While I really wanted all of them to make it out alive I do think that a death makes more sense than none, given the danger they keep putting themselves in. If anything I think we’re lucky to loose only one of them, but I’m happy that no one else has to die.

Matthias was running through the streets of a foreign city, into dangers he did not know, but for the first time since he’d looked into Nina’s eyes and seen his own humanity reflected back at him, the war inside him quieted.

And of course the writing is brilliant.

This duology is one of my favourite things. I learnt so much from it for my own writing, and love it all the more for it. Bardugo’s world will be my happy place if I’m ever stuck for inspiration.

So, just in case you were wondering – I recommend this duology. Read it now!

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Have you read Crooked Kingdom, or would you like to? Get some cookies, drop me a comment and let’s get this book club going!

I don’t review books professionally. These reviews are mainly a small summary and my opinion on books I’ve loved, they are not intended to be anything more. All ‘reviews’ include a picture, title and name of author linking to the book’s Goodreads listing, the blurb from the back of the book and my non-professional verdict.

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